Five years ago if you told any manufacturing company using rapid prototyping that they could get a professional grade FDM 3D printer with 12x12x18 inch build volume AND a desktop 3D printer for $9.300, the combined regular price of a MakerBot Replicator Z18 and a MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen, they would have thought you were crazy. If you told them that, with summer sales, the price for both systems together would drop to $8.998, they probably would have laughed at you.
That is one of the changes brought about by MakerBot’s new market approach: offering professional level 3D printers with a consumer oriented business model to promote the rapid adoption of 3D printing at all levels, from consumers to prosumers to industry professionals. In such a business model, “summer sales” are a must.
The end result is that, until the end of August, those who decide to purchase both 3D printers will get a $400 discount. Having both systems in house may seem like an overkill for a consumer. The fact of the matter is that a growing number of companies are installing a primary professional 3D printing system along with one or more desktop 3D printers in their offices, so that their engineers can do their own trials, before occupying the primary system to make the final prototype (or end product). The same, after all, happens with mainframe computers and desktop PC’s in any modern work environment.
To complete the professional/desktop summer package, MakerBot is also offering a discount on the MakerBot Cart when the Z18 is purchased together with a MakerBot Filament Case (which includes a spool of XXL Makerbot PLA filament) for $1,500, instead of the regular $1,700 price. If users won’t go to the Z18, with its easy to push wheels, the Z18 will come to them.
